


Thinking Out Loud

by quartetship



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, post-reveal, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 01:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10687314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartetship/pseuds/quartetship
Summary: "Is everything okay?""I don't know," said Shiro."Iseverything okay?"





	Thinking Out Loud

**Author's Note:**

> Another short requested piece for my dear friend Maria. Hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> \--

_“You tend to get careless when something is on your mind.”_

It was something Shiro had said to him once, probably too long ago for Shiro himself to even remember it. Offhand as it may have been, Keith had never forgotten. He had never been able to let go of the fact that he had tells when he was upset.

Knowing that, Keith was sure the rest of the team knew something was up. He'd been more reckless behind the red lion's controls than usual, and easier to agitate when he wasn't. He might as well have been sky-writing his problems for all of them to see, or speaking them aloud over the communication links. 

Isolation probably wasn't the best solution. Keith couldn't think of one better, though. Especially now that everyone knew his secret - one that he himself had only had a suspicion of for a short time - he knew he needed time to be alone. To clear his head. To give them space, as well.

After all, how could they want to be near him? How could people whose lives had been so deeply changed and who had borne so much pain at the hands of the Galra want anything to do with someone who carried the blood of their enemy? Keith himself wanted desperately to throw that part of himself away, to reject it, but there was nothing he could do to sever the tie. He was part Galra, part of the evilest and most destructive race of beings in the entire universe.

He couldn't change that.

He could spare his friends his presence, though. That night, after they'd returned from their tasks and plans had been set in place for how to proceed, he did just that. None of them needed him close by, no matter how jovial they were over the evening meal. Perhaps they'd all be better off without him there at all.

It was at about that point in his spiraling thoughts that his silence was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Alone on one of the castle's upper decks, he had no idea that anyone knew where he was, let alone would want to find him there. Shiro always seemed to prove him wrong somehow, though.

“Hoped I would run across you somewhere,” Shiro smiled, as if he'd only accidentally wandered into the secluded room where Keith had been hiding. Keith tried to return his smile, settling for a nod when his face refused to cooperate.

“You found me,” he replied. “Everything okay?”

“I don't know,” Shiro asked, leaning against a smooth, metallic wall a few feet away. He crossed his arms over his chest. _“Is_ everything okay?”

Caught, Keith could only shrug. “As it can be, I guess.” Shiro didn't seem satisfied with that answer.

“So what would make things better?”

Truly, Keith didn't know. He couldn't give a reasonable answer, because to his mind, he, himself, was the problem. He shook his head, chewing nervously on the inside of his cheek.

“I don't know, Shiro. I just. I feel like I shouldn't be here, anymore. Now that I know… You know?”

Shiro shook his head, obviously unmoved. “Do you really think anything has changed? Since you found out, I mean?”

“Are you kidding?” Keith said, eyes widening so quickly his head hurt from it. “Everything has changed. I'm… Why would you guys want-”

“That's what this is about, isn't it?” Shiro interrupted. “This isn't about what you're going through. It's about what you think we're feeling.”

Keith huffed. “It doesn't matter what I'm going through. What matters is the Galra took so much from everyone. Your freedom, your arm, Pidge's family, Allura’s entire planet! And I'm…” His throat closed on itself, beyond his control. He swallowed, trying to continue anyway. “I'm one of them.”

He expected Shiro to argue with him. He expected conflict; it was the whole reason he'd holed himself up at the top of the castle, alone. However, Shiro didn't make any attempt at debate. Instead, he nodded, his expression thoughtful as he took a seat on the floor beside Keith.

“You know, the military back home - the Galactic Garrison - they've done so many things that I abhor. When Sam, Matt and I were taken by the Galra, they lied to everyone about us for a year. They covered it up. They banned Pidge from even joining, and they expelled you for roughly the same reasons.” Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing from behind tightly closed eyes. “They're liars, they're crooks, and they don't care about other human beings at all. And I… I'm one of them.”

Horrified, Keith scrambled backward, moved to his feet as quickly as he could manage. “No, Shiro. You're not. You're nothing like those people.”

Shiro looked up at him, shaking his head. “I signed the papers, Keith. I wore the uniform. I am one of them.”

Growing angrier by the second, Keith stomped his foot, inches away from where Shiro sat. He raised his voice to keep it from shaking, to keep himself from crying. “That doesn't matter, Shiro! None of that matters. You're not like them. You're your own person. You're selfless and kind, and you make the right decisions. That's what makes you who you are. Nothing else.” Shaking by the time he'd finished talking, Keith was almost frightened by Shiro's sudden and inexplicable _laughter._

“What… Why are you laughing at me?” he demanded, feeling foolish despite having meant what he'd said. Shiro moved to his feet as well, walking toward Keith with his arms out as if to hug him.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just… You give such great advice, when you're not the one taking it.” He put his arms around Keith's shoulders, but Keith did not return the gesture. He stared back at him, instead.

“What does that even mean?” he asked. Shiro looked down at him, smiling and patient.

“I mean think about everything you just said to me,” he explained. “It's exactly what we think of you, Keith. All of us. You're not what's in your blood. You're the same person you were before you knew about that, because what makes you yourself is every decision you make. You care about the truth. You care about what's right. You care about your team,” Shiro said, pulling Keith in for a real hug. This time, Keith allowed it, quiet as Shiro spoke. “And we care about you. Exactly as you are. Nothing else matters.”

The words felt foreign to Keith, especially after he'd spent the day with his own voice screaming the opposite inside of his mind. Still, the reassurance washed over him like the returning tides, comforting and cooking skin that had felt painful to live in since he'd learned what he was. What, but not who, he reminded himself, with Shiro's voice still echoing in his head. He knew exactly who he was, and so did his team.

Swallowing the urge to cry once more, Keith returned Shiro's hug full force, and only then noticed that they were not alone.

“So is this like… a bad time, or?” Lance wondered aloud, Pidge and Hunk flanking him on either side. They stood just out of the light, gathered in a corner of the room, presumably watching Keith and Shiro’s conversation. Keith frowned.

“How long have you been there?”

“Pretty much the whole time, honestly,” Hunk replied. Lance shot him an irritated look, but Pidge pushed forward to handle the talking, from there.

“We were just coming to check on you guys. And then we didn't wanna interrupt. But um. Keith? We really do agree with what Shiro said. You're part of our weird little space family, and your genetics have nothing to do with that.”

“Yeah, but it would be pretty cool if you like… turned purple or head those weird, glowing cat eyes,” Hunk chimed in, and to that, Lance snorted with laughter. Strangely, Keith couldn't stop himself from doing the same.

“I'll remember that,” he chuckled, earning a wide-eyed look from Lance at the sheer fact that he was laughing. Amongst his teammates, though - his friends, come what may - it was easy. Keith laughed louder, harder, and wiped at his eyes as he drank in the air afterward, easier to breathe than it had been for him in weeks.

“You guys have no idea how much that means. To hear you all say that,” he said, entirely genuine. Lance crossed the space between them and threw an arm over his shoulder, grinning.

“Yeah, well. We do kind of like having you around, mullet man.” Keith elbowed him in the ribs, and they might have wrestled as a result, if Hunk wasn't dragging the lot of them in for a group hug.

“I love you guys. Of everyone I could've gotten stuck in outer space and tasked with a nearly impossible goal with, I'm glad it was all of you.”

His words were only half in jest; they relay were living every day in an almost unthinkable situation, far from home and from any light at the end of the tunnel. Somehow, though, Keith's chest felt light in response. The weight of worry was off of his shoulders, even if just for the moment. He took another deep breath and nodded, letting himself be hugged from every side. Letting himself be loved, unconditionally.

“Likewise, big man. The feeling is mutual.”


End file.
